retrieving CD key for XP MCE

[ric-a]

My friend recently had a catastrophic system failure which resulted in
a fried hard drive, motherboard and RAM. He cannot access any info on
his old hard drive. He has an OEM system disk, but the product key on
the system case has been damaged and only the last 5 characters are
there. Is there any way he can find the old product key for his OEM
disk, or does this mean purchasing a new OS?

 

[ric-a]

Try this....
'Magical Jelly Bean Software - Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder v1.5'
(http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml) this is taken from the
'Reference link' section herehttp://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/forum48.html

You'll need the computer working for this as you would have to apply
the software.

davy

And therein lies the problem....he can't get his system working
without installing the OS first.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

I guess your friend will now have to purchase a new version of Windows.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Client

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"ric-a wrote:

| And therein lies the problem....he can't get his system working
| without installing the OS first.

 

[Mario Schmidt]

You'll need the computer working for this as you would have to apply
the software.

Not true. Boot BartPE and then use the Keyfinder.

 

[ric-a]

Not true. Boot BartPE and then use the Keyfinder.

Thanks to all for your suggestions...I found out my friend had already
reformatted his drive, so he went out and bought a new OEM OS.